Hannity presses Zacharia on the briefing

The scrutiny of Katie Zacharia, Trump's new White House press secretary, has come from Fox News itself, one of the outlets raising questions over her legal credentials. On Thursday evening, host Sean Hannity asked her about her first press briefing, held on Tuesday, where she read from notes and occasionally stumbled over her words for 14 minutes.

Hannity asked what happened and how the briefing had gone for her personally. Zacharia said the gap between accepting the job and facing reporters left her little preparation time, and she singled out the Daily Mail - one of only three outlets she took questions from - as one that was, in her words, "not known to be a conservative outlet".

She would not say why she took just three questions, but told Hannity she would be "very well prepared on the briefing" going forward and "would love, and do love, questions".

The lawyer-versus-attorney defense

The Thursday exchange also covered her credentials. Zacharia, a Pepperdine University law school graduate, has called herself a "lawyer", while Trump described her as an "attorney" when announcing her appointment. She confirmed this week's reports that she never passed the bar exam, and said she chose "lawyer" over "attorney" to set herself apart from a licensed legal adviser. Pressed on social media posts that labelled her an "attorney", she told Hannity "they were retweets".

Friday morning on Fox & Friends

On Friday morning, Fox & Friends host Lawrence Jones told Zacharia it had been a tough week and that "you never want to be the story". He asked whether she wished she had disclosed to the president before her appointment that she had not passed the bar. Zacharia said "Those questions weren't asked" in her interviews with him, and dismissed them as unimportant.

A rapid rise under watch

Zacharia walked through her quick installation in an interview with the Guardian on Thursday:

• •She is a former conservative commentator who replaces Karoline Leavitt, who left the press secretary role in August.
• •She previously served as an adviser to Trump Media Group, which owns Truth Social.
• •She also had a brief stint as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.

Asked on Fox on Friday, her fifth day as Trump's chief spokesperson, whether she still had the president's confidence, she replied: "I'm standing here".